1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle bed liner having cargo restraining holes.
2. Background Art
With the increase in popularity of pickup trucks, the use of truck bed liners has also increased. In addition, other types of cargo-carrying vehicles—e.g., sport utility vehicles (SUV) and station wagons—may also utilize some kind of tray or bed liner for the cargo-carrying area. In addition to protecting the vehicle bed, a bed liner may also provide attachment features so that various items of cargo can be secured.
One such bed liner is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,918 issued to Wood et al. on Oct. 19, 1993. Wood et al. describes a truck bed liner that can be configured with a number of attachment features. For example, a washer may be formed into the truck bed liner to strengthen the relatively thin wall of the bed liner, which may be prone to tearing or deforming when items are attached to it. In addition, Wood et al. describes the use of a nut formed into the truck bed liner, thereby providing a point of attachment for a bolt or machine screw. Wood et al. describes other embodiments of the truck bed liner, including embodiments which have protrusions extending upward from the bed liner, and configured with holes which may be used to receive a bolt, which can then be used to attach other types of fasteners, such as nuts or hinges.
One limitation of the truck bed liner described in Wood et al. is that it relies on a nut to be formed integrally with the truck bed liner in order to provide a threaded attachment feature for a bolt or machine screw. Moreover, in the embodiments which describe the use of a protrusion to receive a bolt, the configuration of the protrusions may be aesthetically unpleasing, may interfere with easy loading and unloading of cargo, and further, use of the bolts still requires an additional fastener such as a nut or a hinge.
Therefore, a need exists for a vehicle bed liner having cargo restraining holes that can directly receive a threaded fastener, such as a bolt, without the need for additional elements, such as nuts to provide mating threads for the fastener, and one that does not require the use of inconvenient protrusions to provide a hole configured to receive a bolt which nonetheless still requires another fastener, such as a nut.